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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Here is another easy Easter idea that you can do with your kids. Divide up jellybeans by color (a good sorting activity), put one of each into baggies (one-to-one correspondence), and then tie them up with a bow with the poem below attached. Deliver them to neighbors, librarians, classmates, relatives, etc. to share the real meaning of Easter.

Here is the poem, by Charlene Dickensen:

Red is for the blood He gave.Green is for the grass He made.Yellow is for the sun so bright.Orange is for the edge of night.Black is for the sins we made.White is for the grace He gave.Purple is for the hour of sorrow.Pink is for our new tomorrow.A bag full of jellybeansSo colorful and sweet,is a prayer, is a promise,is a loved one's treat.

This week Target has Lifesavers Jellybeans on sale for $1.88.Use the $1/2 coupon here to get them for $1.38 each.CVS has jellybeans on sale for $0.77 this week, but they don't have black or white in them. It looks like the Lifesavers Jellybeans have white, but I'm not sure about black.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

While you are making your shopping list, make sure to include the ingredients for some yummy Resurrection Crescents! They are super simple and delicious, and it is easy to have the kids involved in making them while talking about the Easter story. Keep in mind that these disappear quickly, so you may want to double (or triple!) the recipe. :-) Many stores have the ingredients for these on sale this week (both Kroger and Roundy's do!).

Separate rolls into eight triangles. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Dip each marshmallow (Jesus' body) into butter, roll in cinnamon-sugar and place on a triangle (explain that Jesus' friends put spices on His body and wrapped it in cloths). Pinch dough around marshmallow, sealing all edges. Dip tops of dough into remaining butter and cinnamon-sugar. Place with sugar side up on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in oven (tomb) at 375 degrees for 13 to 15 minutes. Serve warm. During the baking, the marshmallows melt and when you open the roll, it is empty inside! He is not here! He is risen!

*Some recipes say to put these in muffin tins. They get very sticky and messy, and I've found that cleaning off a flat cookie sheet or baking pan is a lot easier than cleaning muffin tins.

Roundy's stores (Copps, Pick 'n Save, and Rainbow) double 5 coupons up to $1 per $25 order every Wednesday (and Rainbow is doubling on Saturdays, too!), so a $1 coupon takes $2 off! The $25 is before coupons, and after you swipe your store card. Final prices assume your coupons are doubled--do separate transactions to double more coupons (I usually do at least 2). There are several deals this week, so here are some printable coupon matches to help you make your list. Check your coupon stash to see if you can find more matches. For printing tips, click here. Questions? Feel free to email me!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Kroger doubles coupons up to $0.50 every day. Kroger deals may differ slightly by region, so be sure to check your ad. Find your nearest Kroger (or affiliate) here. Here are some current printable coupons available to match up with this week's sales. Check your coupon stash to see if you can find any more matches! Happy shopping!

If you live in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, or Nebraska and have texting on your cell phone, you can get a free regular roast beef sandwich at Arby's by texting CURLY to 27297. This offer is good at DRM-owned locations only. Find one near you here (click on the state name under the navigation bar). You can also print some coupons here. Text messaging rates apply.

If you live in Wisconsin and have texting on your cell phone, you're in for a free treat! Pizza hut is offering free stuffed Pizza Rollers from today through Wednesday, March 31st. Text PIZZAHUT to 313131 and you will get a text back that you will show on your phone when you pick up your free order. Find the closest participating WHG-owned location here. Dine in or carryout only, text messaging rates apply.

I had a question this week about giving out your credit card number to request freebies. DO NOT DO THIS! I try to only post true freebies, and you should never have to give out your credit card information. If I ever slip-up and post something that requires credit info, please let me know so I can delete it from the list. You need to protect your personal info! I have set up another email account that I use for sweeps and freebies (you can request a free one from yahoo, gmail, mail.com, and many other places), and if a field is not required when I'm filling out a form, I don't enter that info. Getting freebies in your mailbox is fun and is legit--the companies want to get you hooked on their products--but just be careful. Okay, now for some freebies!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

I posted this last year, but I know I have some new readers, so I wanted to share it again. It is an easy and frugal activity to put together, and it provides HOURS of fun for kids, while helping them remember the Easter story.

One tradition my family enjoys each year to incorporate the real meaning of Easter are Resurrection Eggs. They are a set of plastic eggs filled with items to help tell the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. You can buy a set for $6.99 here, or you can make a set of your own! All you need is an egg carton, 12 plastic eggs, and a set of symbols to put inside, as well as some verses to go along with them.

There are different versions of Resurrection Eggs, so I'll make a list of the versions I've found and you can pick and choose to assemble your set with what you have on hand, keeping in mind the order of the story. Real items work best (for sensory participation), but pictures work too, and a mixture of both is fine.

I highly recommend that you number the eggs on the outside, so you know which egg to open first. This way kids can tell what order the eggs go in as well. You can also print out the verses and cut them up to put inside each egg or leave them all together and keep the verse list with the set. Our family likes to take turns hiding the eggs. Then the girls find them and put them in the egg carton and once we have them all, we go through them in order, retelling the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. Have fun making your set!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Do you homeschool? If you do, I think you might want to get in on this. Even if you don't homeschool, this is a great resource for printable worksheets on MANY topics, so you might want to consider becoming a subscriber just for this resource! HomeschoolFreebieoftheDay.com offers free downloadable resources every day, and they offer special downloads for their email subscribers.

Today I got this 2010 Free Worksheets Directory that has 40 pages worth of links to online worksheets covering every subject, organized by topic. So if your child needs extra work in spelling, math, science, art, or history, you can find links to free printable worksheets here. There are 20 topics listed with many links for each topic (even college prep and special needs). What a treasure!

I wish I could share the link with you here, but that's not allowed. You have to become a subscriber to get this freebie. They said they won't be advertising it, but it will be available for new subscribers to download for the next couple of weeks. Being a subscriber means they send you a weekly email with that week's free downloads, and there is always an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email if you choose to discontinue. Some weeks I don't download anything, but other weeks I pick 2-3 things.

Wnat more homeschooling freebies? MoneySavingMom posted about 18 freebies you can get at CurrClick right now by doing an Easter Egg Hunt. Find clues and a listing of the freebies (to see if it's worth your time) here.

My friend Shari posted this SUPER-CUTE maternity re-make, taking a "tent-ish" shirt and ruching the sides. She had originally found the directions from Jill. This is a cute maternity re-fashion, but it can be done for regular shirts, too. I just saw a girl's shirt for sale at Target that had this exact ruching method, with the elastic stitched down the inside. Both ladies said it was "super simple" and "very easy", which I'm sure it is for most people. But I'm not most people.

Yes, I took home-ec in middle school and learned how to work a sewing machine. Yes, I own a small "mighty mender" I got from my mom. Yes, I've tried to use it more than once in the past 10 years, but those attempts were unsuccessful. I can sew on a patch or a button with a needle and thread, but I'm just not good with my sewing machine. Usually I can live with that.

But I REALLY wanted to try this project, since I have several "tent-ish" maternity shirts that I would love to update (like the one pictured here--sorry, I'm not a good photographer, either!). Shari and Jill made it look and sound easy--Shari said it took her 10 minutes. But they both used a sewing machine. Hmmmm. . . how was I going to do this?

I decided to try with a needle and thread. (pausing for snickering--it's okay, I deserve it) I knew it would take longer this way, but I reasoned it would take me twice as long to get out the machine and figure out how to work it. Plus, a needle and thread doesn't scare me. I sorta got the idea, but it didn't turn out right. The stitches just weren't close enough together.

But I STILL really wanted to try it. Ted said I should invite over a friend who isn't scared of sewing machines and watch all the kids while she zipped through my shirts for me. This probably wasn't a bad idea, but I was too embarrassed. I decided to face my fear of THE MIGHTY MENDER. I'm the mom of (almost) 5 girls. I should probably get this fear under control, don't you think?

I brought it up from the basement and set it up. I didn't want to deal with changing the thread and re-threading the bobbin and all that, so I decided that the cream thread that was in the machine would work fine with a light pink shirt (don't look too closely, okay?).

I got everything all set to go and was still in the process of psyching myself up when one of the girls noticed me. "SISTERS!! Mommy has the sewing machine out!" Great--now I have an audience--as if I wasn't nervous enough! Of course they wanted to help, so I thought things through. I was still trying to figure out how to pull the shirt through the machine WHILE stretching the elastic AND hit the on and off button, all while trying to keep things relatively straight on a machine I was afraid of. I decided help wouldn't be so bad.

I held the shirt and fed it through while H stretched the elastic. G was in charge of the on/off button. Because the "psyching myself up" process had taken so long, M and F had lost interest. I assured H that the machine was going to turn on and things would start to move kinda fast, but that I wouldn't run over her fingers. She didn't seem scared at all. I was practically shaking! I took a few deep breaths and said, "let's do it!"

The machine whirred to life and whisked along quickly. I wished I could slow it down! We had a miscommunication which caused a minor flub-up, but we got one side done. An hour later H helped me with the other side. It's not very neat (remember, you promised not to look closely), but here are the results. If you see me wearing this in person, please DON'T ask to see my stitching! It's not as cute as Shari's, but I think it is better than it used to be.

Maybe one of my girls will have a desire to become a seamstress someday. Or maybe they'll have a talent with sewing machines (which to me would mean they could sew a straight line without freaking out). I can hope that knowing how to sew skips a generation in my family (read "their grandmothers can teach them")! Despite my fear, I will try not to quench their desires.

In case one of you wants to try this, here's the basic idea. It is simple--even though it took me over an hour. If you aren't afraid of your sewing machine, I'm sure it won't take you nearly that long! Take a piece of elastic and sew it onto the bottom of your shirt along the side seam, about an inch up. Then STRETCH the elastic while you machine-sew up the shirt, preferably almost to about the bust-line (mine didn't quite go up far enough, but oh well). I meant to buy some elastic last weekend but forgot, so I took the elastic band out of some of H's adjustable waist jeans that had gotten holes in the knees. So for me, this project was free (monetarily, not emotionally)! :-)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

This week I went to two grocery stores. I went to one of the local stores just to pick up their loss leaders. The milks were $1.48 each and everything else in the picture was $0.98 or less, but I still ended up paying $20.12 at that store, with a savings of 52%.

Then I went to Roundy's for their double coupon day and did 4 transactions. I did the Kellogg's/Keebler transaction first, because I didn't know if the products were going to ring up at regular price or the sale price, so I didn't know if I would need $10 more worth of groceries to get my coupons to double. So I had $10 more in products in my cart just in case and asked her to try doubling the first coupon. It did! Plus I apparently hit my personal perks goal of spending $90 last week because I got $4.50 off my bill (what?! you know I didn't spend $90 last week, but it must go off shelf prices). So that first receipt was only $1.74!

I put that stuff out in my car and came back in for 3 more transactions. Overall I spent $47.34, but I will get $5 back for the Jennie-O rebate (making those turkey burgers only $0.99!). These items were free: I Can't Believe It's Not Butter x2, Yoplait Delights (I could only find 1 coupon! Grr!), Campbell's soup x4, Goody hair product, YoCrunch, and Keebler Cookies.

The girls will be excited about the Cuties, which I haven't been able to find at other stores--and I was excited to finally be able to double my $1/1 coupons! I never buy bottled water, but it was less than $2 for the 24 pack and I figured it would be good to have around. The Palermo's pizza was $2 ADC (from All You I think), and my Nestle chocolate chip coupons were expiring, so I wanted to use them. I also bought two boxes of Chai tea, one black and one green (anyone know if there is a difference in taste?)--I've been sick this week and have been going through tea like crazy!

My overall total for the week was $62.46 for 68 items, with a savings of $101.56 or 60%. Not too bad, but I was disappointed with myself for going over $55 for the second week in a row. However, my monthly total is $204.62, which is an average of $51.15 a week, so I'm still okay. Whew!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

ChristianBook.com has a Spring Fever sale going on right now and their prices are incredible--up to 99% off! There are over 200 items that are under $1, so you might want to head over and check it out! There are CDs, DVDs (80 for under $5!), children's books, fiction books, valentines, teacher, graduation and wedding gifts, Bible study guides, and more. The best stuff won't last long at these prices!

There are free shipping codes here. I'm guessing they won't work--but it's worth a shot. Even with shipping some of these things are a great deal!

Stephanie asked a good question that some of you also might be wondering, so I thought I would share. She asked how I determine my percentage savings each week. Of course this number is going to be a little bit high, since it goes off of regular price, and most of us don't ever pay regular price, right? :-) But it gives us something to measure, and something to shoot for.

How to determine your percentage savings:Savings (as added up on the bottom of the receipts--where it says SAVINGS under your total)divided bySavings + OOP (out of pocket, what you actually paid)

To give you an example, on the bottom of one of my receipts (the cereal one from last week), my total OOP was $2.26. Under that it says my savings was $27.73 ($14.74 in coupons and rainchecks, $10 off for the cereal deal, $2.69 from a BOGO sale, and $0.30 from a sale on the margarine--this apparently doesn't include the $0.10 I saved by using my own bags).

So to determine my percentage saved for this receipt:$27.73divided by$27.73+$2.26=$29.99for a savings of 92% (plus I got the $3.25 milk catalina--those cereal deals are AWESOME!).

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Roundy's stores (Copps, Pick 'n Save, and Rainbow) double 5 coupons up to $1 per $25 order every Wednesday (and Rainbow is doubling on Saturdays, too!), so a $1 coupon takes $2 off! The $25 is before coupons, and after you swipe your store card. Final prices assume your coupons are doubled--do separate transactions to double more coupons (I usually do at least 2). There are several deals this week, so here are some printable coupon matches to help you make your list. Check your coupon stash to see if you can find more matches. For printing tips, click here. Questions? Feel free to email me!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Kroger doubles coupons up to $0.50 every day. Kroger deals may differ slightly by region, so be sure to check your ad. Find your nearest Kroger (or affiliate) here. Here are some current printable coupons available to match up with this week's sales. Check your coupon stash to see if you can find any more matches! Happy shopping!

Go to Starbucks and get a free pastry with any drink purchase until 10:30 am. Choose from croissants, muffins, bagels, breads, pound cakes, scones, rolls, doughnuts, coffee cakes, morning Bun and danish. You need to print out the coupon to get your free pastry. Be aware, supplies are limited and they might go fast.

Have you been winning with Swagbucks? My favorite prize to redeem is the Amazon $5 gift card because it is the best value at 450 Swagbucks, but if you'd rather have $5 deposited into your Paypal account, I've got good news! Today through Wednesday, the $5 Paypal reward is sale-priced at 550 swagbucks instead of the normal 700 Swagbucks.

Get a coupon for a free box of new Better Oats Oatmeal by email. Since this will be an internet printable for a free product, some stores may not accept it. Also, their store locator isn't working yet, so I'm not even sure which stores carry it. Anyone know?

Get a coupon for a free bottle of Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce here. Limit one coupon per household/address. I have posted this freebie before (a long time ago!), so you may have already requested this. It's good sauce, so if you haven't, I encourage you to give it a try!

Discounted Gift Certificates

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Check out my "Coupon 101" posts for getting started. Abbreviations have you confused? Go to "Coupon Lingo" for a crash course. And always feel free to email me with questions. I do this because I want to help others! :-) Printing issues? Click here for some help.